A SMALL GUIDE TO DRAWING
QUIRKY
CHARACTERS by
ELI
A SMALL GUIDE TO DRAWING QUIRKY CHARACTERS by ELI.
index About me My work What to draw? Inspiration & Challenges Sketching Supplies DR AWIN G PRO CESS Reference Sketch Base Colors Shadows Lines Details Hightlights Finished Drawing Take cool photos and share them! T hings I’ve learned An advice
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ABOUT ME... Hi! My name is Eli, I’m an artist aspiring to be an illustrator and a graphic design student. I’ve been drawing for a couple years now and I’ve decided to share this little guide of some tips and tricks. I would say my style is a mixture of a lot of things and I’m not sure I can describe it, but I like my drawings to look cute but at the same time a little odd. My favorite mediums to work with are watercolor, gouache, and markers. Although most of the time I mix them. I’ve also worked with acrylics and color pencils. T hese are some examples of what I do.
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“If I was a house...” Watercolor - 2020
“Interestellar” Gouache - 2019
“Demon Girl” Markers - 2020
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What to draw? A lot of people get frustrated with not knowing what to draw, the truth is you can draw anything, even drawing a plain and basic spoon is a good practice of perspective, reflections, and details. I have sketchbooks filled with random things I drew out of boredom and don’t be afraid of having these ugly or uninteresting things in there, it’s fun and no one really has to see them. T he most important thing is that you challenge yourself. Draw things you feel comfortable with because that helps develop your style and also things you’re not comfortable with, for example, drawing men is complicated for me, so I would dedicate a page from my sketchbook to drawing men only.
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inspiration & C hallenges We often use “not being inspired” as an excuse to not drawing, there are moments where you may just not feel like it, and that’s ok, but if you don’t feel like practicing today watch a movie or series, read a book, scroll through social media and you may happen to stumble upon an image that triggers your creative brain.
Use your free time to collect visual
Art challenges on Instagram are a great way to find inspiration, you may not feel like coming up with a whole concept for a drawing and challenges guide you towards a goal, they are often a lot of fun and having a subject makes you narrow down the possibilities and not dwell on details.
I get a lot of my inspiration from fantasy books, series, and movies, from other artists I admire, music and emotions. The chaos in your head sometimes can become a really cool concept that you can look back on and think “I was really not having a good day that time, but it helped me create something”.
information. Don’t wait for inspiration to fall from the sky, that’s a mistake a lot of people make. Make fanarts from movies or books you like, that helps you connect with other people and find common interests.
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Sketc hing Sketching is important, sometimes you can have a clear idea but once you see it on paper it’s not that good. T his can help you improve the composition and figure out details. Make thumbnails, as many as you need, explore all the options, if something feels off about your sketch it won’t look better later on. Sketching is my favorite part of a drawing, you can see how your idea evolved from being messy and rough to a clean and (sometimes) cool finished piece. Not all sketches have to become a masterpiece, keep things for yourself, your sketchbook is like a diary and sometimes you may not even want people to see what’s in there.
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Sketchbooks are such a great part of the whole experience, invest in one that feels comfortable, my favorite paper size is A4, acid-free paper and not too thick so I can use my markers, so the pages don’t swallow all the ink from them. You can have multiple ones for different techniques or different sizes for traveling and stuff, but try to finish one at a time. they’re a record of your journey and keep them always near you just in case you get inspired or bored, fill them with things you love, like stickers, some people even like to keep flowers and leaves in them, make it yours and special.
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SUPPLIES T he materials you use are important but not critical, you can create the most incredible things with just your basic HB/2B pencil, and having or using the most expensive supplies doesn’t always mean you’ll get better results. T his is a small list of what works for ME, and why. Remember every style has different needs, so take everything I say with a grain of salt and have fun while discovering your personal preferences. Don’t spend too much on materials when you’re just starting your “art journey”, as you progress and get better you’ll get to “deserve” those. I’m not saying you should be cheap either, but there are some student grade options that work just fine (dollar store materials are a no-no).
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Mechanical Pencil & Pencil Leads For sketching, I use red STAE DT LER leads, they are not as easy to erase as graphite but they blend better once you color the drawing
Brown MICRON Liner & Brown Faber- Castell Ballpen I almost never use black ink to line my drawings so I started buying brown liner tools and they give a softer look
White Gelly Roll Pen T his is by far the best white pen I’ve ever tried, it makes fluid white lines and that’s usefull for hair and highlights
Markers I have a small collection of markers, I would use them, for example, if I needed a super bright/saturated color I cannot make with watercolors.
KOH-I-NOOR Eraser T his eraser is really useful in case you need to erase small parts of a drawing.
Watercolors & Brushes I use a lot of different brands of watercolors. You don’t always need to use expensive paints but tubes are usually better than a cheap pan. Same thing with brushes, cheap ones are “fine” but if you spend a little more on them, they usually last longer and mantain their shape, which is really important. T his particular one in the picture is old but I keep using it because it holds enough water and it’s super thin.
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MY DRAWING PROCESS
T he following pages contain my drawing process, starting from the inspiration to the completed piece. I would like to make this clear: I’m NOT teaching you HOW to draw or paint, we would need a lot more pages for that and a qualified professional artist, and that’s not me in the slightest. It takes time and practice like everything in life. If that’s what you’re looking for there’s a lot of content on the internet and books where you can learn the basics. T his manual is meant for tips and small tricks that I think are usefull for my type of illustrations, I don’t even have a “style” yet, I draw in a lot of styles but don’t let that discourage you, it’s your art and change things as many times as you want.
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REFEREN CE While looking for inspiration I saw this little witch siting on the bookshelf, I painted it last year and it has this odd face I really like, I often try to not draw only pretty things, you can create some really interesting characters with odd features, some wonky teeth and droopy eyes give her a more special appearance, so I used that as a reference for my piece. So that’s what we’re drawing, a green witch holding a pumpkin!
Sketc h
T hese were some of my ideas I had for the drawing, I ended up liking the first one but it was too stiff and simple. 11
I usually use my own hands as reference and this was no excepption, don’t hide them, practice hands! It only gets easier.
I decided the witch needed a story, at least a small one always helps to add detail. First, I needed to arch her back a little more, I wanted it to look like the pumpkin was a little heavy, and added a bag as if she was back from shopping some witchy things from the market. Search for reference pictures if you need to, I did for the feet pose. You don’t always have to do it, but if it feels like something looks off, you probably need to look for a reference.
Now let’s transfer this drawing to watercolor paper and clean it up.
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BASE COLORS I usually don’t lay down my base colors like this, but I thought it would be easier to explain and it would look better in a photo. So, let’s talk about watercolors, they are a little complicated at first but you have to get used to them and with time you’ll see they’re actually quite fun. If you see my photo, the color is patchy and nothing here looks even close to done. My first tip will be: Let the layers dry in between. Watercolor tends to lift up and create ugly patches if you don’t let the previous layer dry. Second tip is: Start light. You can use things like masking fluid if you need an area to be white but I usually am too lazy to use masking fluid.
THE COLOR PALE TTE You should choose your color palette before starting your drawing, there are a lot of ways of doing this, for example palette generators online, or simply another image you saw. Why? you may ask, it’s not like you’re ONLY using those colors, but it helps a lot to not dwell too much or feel lost while coloring. and also because you cannot erase watercolor and once you put color down it’s really hard to completely lift it up without leaving a mark.
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SH ADOWS AND LIGHT Shadows are one of those things you have to figure out for yourself, and I’m not the correct person to explain, there are so many tipes of lights you can choose from, but for the sake of making this simple I put my light source on the right side and went from there.
At this point I also added blush to her cheeks and ear, this is something I do a lot with all my drawings, I would do it also on visible shoulders, elbows, knees and fingers.
All your shadows should be coherent at least, and unless you’re drawing realism there are a lot of shortcuts.
Another tip for shadows is: don’t use black. T his is a common mistake and black watercolor will make your colors look muddy. I usually take the time to mix a darker and less saturated color for the shadows.
Logic should be enough but you can also steal it from another image of you find it hard. If you need an specific type of lighting look for a reference.
Remember watercolors are transparent and some artist line their drawings before coloring them, feel free to do that with water resistant ink but I usually do that almost as a last step.
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LI NES T his is the face after I added some color to it. You can see the red lines from the sketch still and that’s okay but I wanted brown lines.
I used my brown Faber- Castell ballpoint pen. You can use a different tool but I really like how you can change the weight of the lines with it and it’s a really pretty burnt brown. At this point I realized I wanted brighter more saturated colors so...
I added an additional layer of paint to the whole drawing and also lined the hair with my brown MICRON liner, did the same with the pumpkin she’s holding.
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After I added that additional layer of paint I started to like it a lot more, that was an advice I got from one of my favorite artists, Marij a T iurina. She always goes over her watercolors with an additional layer of paint to add more depth and saturation. Once they dry, watercolors lose some of their saturation and that’s a good thing to remember. I added details to the whole drawing with color pencils, this is an optional step and I don’t always do it, but it felt like it needed more details. You cannot always make sharp lines with watercolor so I added lines to her skin and the pumpkin. I also used markers in some parts where I felt there was too much white, don’t be afraid to mix mediums, you could also use acrylics or gouache to add details after.
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Adding white at the end always helps, don’t go overboard with it though, adding a little highlight here and there should be enough, I used a white PRISM ACOLOR pencil and my Jelly Roll Pen.
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here's the final drawing!
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Take pretty photos and share them...
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If you’re feeling accomplished and like the result go ahead and take pictures of your drawings with a good light source, I like to take my photos with natural light, some people also scan their drawings but I don’t have a scanner and I prefer pictures where you can see the materials that were used. Try with different angles, make sure the drawing is the focal point and don’t be afraid of taking it outside, I really like photos with green life as the background, or clouds, so create an environment around it if you feel like it. Most people will upload just scans of their work, and that’s ok, or if you’re a digital artist then there’s not much you can do I guess, but watch some product photography tutorials and that could help with composition and light. Share your creations, you may not always love the result, and that’s probably because you’ve been staring at the same piece of paper for the last couple hours and you know what steps you took and the result you expected, and it may not look like you envisioned it, but other people do not see that. It’s hard to share something we know we could have done a better job at, but in the end, it’s part of your process and not everything has to be perfect! 20
Things I've learned Study other artists, most of the accounts I follow on social media are art or photography related. People often tell me they don’t do that because it makes them compare their work to others too much and it feels bad when you’re not as skilled, I understand that feeling but that shouldn’t stop anyone, we all start somewhere, and also we’re probably talking about professional artists that have been drawing for years and years. T hey do need your support and sometimes they’ll post small tutorials that can help you.
For example: Big noses, ears, scrawny limbs, chubby cheeks and bodies, different skin colors, old people... things you don’t see enough of out there. And if, in the end you only want to draw young female characters, that’s ok. But you’ll have a lot more experience.
If you like drawing humanoid characters, learn anatomy basics and then twist it your way. Draw for you, and what you like. Ignore negative comments, they usually come from family or just random people whenever they don’t agree with your choise of topic or character. If cute anime girls are your thing right now, draw cute anime girls and don’t let anyone stop you, but also, you’ll probably move on from them in the future, that happened to me, I didn’t like I was only portraying beautiful characters with long lucious hair and perfect bodies. T hat takes me to my next point: draw odd/ imperfect features. T his may not be for everyone, or every character you create but it can help your style develop more.
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Also, sign your drawings and put the date somewhere so you can see the progress.
OH AND... DON'T FORGET TO PRACTICE 22
a lot!
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...yup.
wait, is that the end?
